The Russian Stock Market Reopens to a Different Reality

BlackRock’s Larry Fink warned the Russia-Ukraine war has put an end to globalization and could accelerate the use of digital currencies, in his annual chairman’s letter to shareholders.

• If another round of shots or a variant-specific vaccine is needed, the U.S. might not have the money to pay for them. Congress removed the funding from the recent budget. “The virus is not waiting for Congress to act,” said White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients.

• 
  Modernawill seekFood and Drug Administration authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine for children six months to 5 years old, after data showing its vaccine induced a strong neutralizing antibody response in 6,900 participants. Their immune response was similar to that in vaccinated adults ages 18 to 25.

• Moderna said children who received two 25-microgram doses didn’t develop severe disease or heart inflammation or require hospitalization. If approved, the U.S. has enough doses to inoculate that population, Zients said.

• New Covid infections are averaging 28,600 cases a day, down 9% from last week, hospitalizations are down 23%, and daily deaths are down 26% to 900. While the BA.2 subvariant is increasing in some regions, the upticks are minor increases, health officials said at a briefing.

What’s Next: The FDA’s outside vaccine experts will meet April 6 to consider separate requests by Moderna and

Pfizer to authorize fourth doses of their Covid vaccines. Pfizer said fourth shots should be administered to adults 65 and older, while Moderna wants all adults to be boosted.

—Janet H. Cho

***

Wall Street Bonuses Jumped to a Record $257,500 in 2021

The average Wall Street bonus jumped to a record high of $257,500 in 2021, boosted by low interest rates and a flourishing market for initial public offerings, according to estimates from the New York state Comptroller. The bonus pool rose 21%, to $45 billion last year.

• The IPO market fueled lower interest expenses and record fees related to underwriting, supervising, and advising newly public companies, the report said. The securities industry makes up one-fifth of private sector wages in New York City, and accounted for 18% of 2021 state tax collections.

• Global equity capital markets rankings for 2021 have

  
  Goldman Sachs as the top bank, with $3.90 billion in revenue, followed by

  
  JPMorgan Chase ($3.17 billion),

  
  Morgan Stanley ($3.15 billion),

  
  BofA Securities ($2.11 billion), and

  
  Citigroup ($1.93 billion), according to Dealogic.

• New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said profitability and bonuses are likely to be lower for Wall Street in 2022, because markets have started out the year with turbulence. That has choked off the IPO spigot. Recovery in other sectors is sluggish and uneven, and Russia is waging war in Ukraine.

• The average security industry salary of $438,470, including bonuses, was almost five times the $92,315 average salary in the rest of the private sector, the Financial Times reported. The security industry makes up 5% of private sector jobs in New York City.

What’s Next: “In New York, we won’t get back to our pre-Covid economic strength until more New Yorkers and more sectors — retail, tourism, construction, the arts and others — enjoy similar success,” DiNapoli said.

—Sabrina Escobar and Janet H. Cho

***

Amazon Faces Union Vote by Staten Island Warehouse Workers

Amazon.com workers at the company’s largest Staten Island, N.Y., warehouse, begin voting Friday on whether to become the e-commerce firm’s first U.S. employees to join a union. The effort is spearheaded by current and former Amazon workers at the warehouse, and voting runs through March 30.

• A second vote at a different Staten Island facility takes place starting April 25. Pro-union leaders saythey want better pay, benefits and working conditions. Some warehouse employees protested working conditions during the pandemic, saying Amazon wasn’t doing enough to protect workers against Covid-19 as online orders surged.

• Amazon said it prefers negotiating directly with employees. “As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told Barron’s.

• Workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., are mailing in ballots after a failed organizing effort last year. Amazon won that vote, with 71% of workers voting against union representation, but the National Labor Relations Board later said Amazon used unlawful influence over workers.

• Elsewhere, more than 500

  
  Chevron employees went on strike Monday at a refinery in California amid a stalemate over the company’s expired contract with the United Steelworkers Local 5 union. Workers at

  
  Deere & Co.,

  
  Mondelez International and

  
  Kellogg won higher wages and other benefits after striking for new contracts recently.

What’s Next: Amazon organizers point to successful efforts by

• One of the original meme stocks, GameStop has surged 40% in the last few days after

  
  Chewy founder and GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen added to his stake, bringing it to 11.9%. GameStop reported a surprise $148 million loss in the quarter ended in January.

• The company has outlined plans to be an online gaming marketplace, including videos and other products. The company didn’t respond to Barron’s for comment.

• GameStop’s NFT initiative is a partnership with a start-up called Immutable X, through which they will give grants to NFT developers. The largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, does $3 billion in monthly NFT volume. Cryptocurrency exchange operator

  
  Coinbase Global is also building an NFT marketplace.

• GameStop’s challenge will be reaching beyond gamers for NFT buyers. Opensea’s most popular NFTs aren’t games but Bored Apes and CryptoPunks. GameStop also primarily sells console games for Xbox and PlayStation, controlled by platform makers such as

  
  Microsoft and

  
  Sony.

What’s Next: Jefferies analyst Stephanie Wissink sees the NFT market reaching $35 billion in sales in 2022 and $80 billion by 2025.

—Liz Moyer and Jack Denton

***

Do you own land that you want to develop and then sell? Here’s one way to pay a smaller tax bill.

Luckily, there’s a strategy that allows favorable long-term capital gains tax treatment for all the pre-development appreciation in the value of your land.

Say you own some vacant lots. Like other real estate, they have appreciated big time over the last few years, and you’re ready to cash in. Or you may have a parcel that you want to subdivide into lots, develop them, and sell them off for a hopefully even bigger profit. Either way, you’ll owe taxes.